Improvement in constructing rims and field-pieces for watch or locket cases



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES N. ALLEN, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN CONSTRUCTING RINlS AND FIELD-PIECES'FOR WATCH 0R LOCKET CASES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 24,528, dated June 28, 1859.

'To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES N. ALLEN, of the city and county of Providence,in the State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Method of Making the Rimsand Field-Pieces for Watch or Locket Cases; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in ,connec-` tion with the drawings making a part of the same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof. l

Figure l represents a strip of sheet metal from which the rim and field-piece are to be made. Figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are views of the lseveral forms which Fig. I is made to assume in undergoing the various operations to which it is subjected in order to convert the strip into a Watch or locket rim.

The Well-known method of making Watch or locket rims, and the one which is 'now most generally employed, is to take a piece of wire and after drawing it into the form desired solder the ends together and shape it on a mandrel. The field-piece or that projecting lip Which supports the glass, is then made in the same Way and then soldered Within the rim.

Another method which has been employed is described in the specification attached to the Letters Patent granted to Charles G. Bloomer, and consists in punching out a disk of metal from a sheet, and then by the use of a successive series of dies or swages strike up the rim Without the use of solder. p

A third method which has been employed is described in the specification attached to the Letters Patent granted to Henry A. Phil' lips, and consists in the use of a former attached to the tool-post of a lathe, While the blank which is to form both the back and the rim of the locket is revolved in a chuck and formed with a han d-tool into the shape desired.

All these methods are accompanied with objections.

The irst or old method involves a great expenditure of labor, and the operation of soldering in the iield-piece is one of great nicety.

The method employed by Bloomer, above referred to, is accompanied with a great Waste of stock, from the fact that the perforated strip or sheet of metal which is left after the blanks have been punched must be remelted and Worked over into plate if it is of fine gold, While if of base metal covered with a thin surface of gold, as is most generally the case, the loss incurred by the process of refining is added to the loss of labor on the stock.

By the method employ ed by Phillips, above referred to, in addition to the Waste which is incurred from theA same causeas last explained, another disadvantage arises, from the fact that as both the back and the rim are made from one piece they must be of the same quality and grade. of metal, While'it is universally the practice to make the rim of a poorer and the back of a better grade of metal. Lockets therefore made on this principle Would, on account of the stock from which they Were made, be leither of too good or of too poor a quality to compete with those which the marketprincipally demands.

To make a locket-rim and field-piece with the greatest economy of stock and labor possible is'the object of my improvement.

It consists in taking a piece of sheet-metal stock as it comes from the plate-Workers and cutting it into narrow strips, as shown in Fig. l. I then take a piece 0f one of these strips equal in length to the circumference of the rim which I desire to make and solder the two ends together. After shaping it upon a mandrel I have it in the form shown in Fig. 2. I then turn the edge of this hoop of metal by means of a pair of tinmans rolls or by any other means and make it assume the form shown in Fig. 3, and, lastly, by means of a suitable die and former, I sWage it into the form of a male rim., as Fig. 4, or into the form of a female rim, as Fig. 5, as I may desire. The rim and Held-piece are thus made together and the least possible Waste of stock.

and labor is secured. l

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Making the rim and Iield-piece for Watch or locket cases froma strip of sheet metal, substantially as described.

JAMES N. ALLEN.

Witnesses:

JOHN GARTLAND, JOSEPH RUTLEDGE. 

